Bungie CEO criticised for spending millions on classic cars, as calls for leadership changes escalate
"You also invited me to come see your new cars two days before you laid me off."
Following news of yesterday's layoffs at Bungie, CEO Pete Parsons has faced criticised from staff for spending millions on classic cars since the studio was purchased by Sony in 2022 and bragging about his lavish collection, as the company headed towards this week's latest brutal round of job losses.
Employees - some of whom are now unemployed - have shared links to an array of classic cars purchased via the Bring a Trailer website, with Parsons profile public and listing a vast number of auction wins. The earliest was in September 2022 costing $34,000; the most recent was 1st June this year costing $91,500, just a month before these latest layoffs. "How exciting!" wrote Parsons in a comment. "I have wanted a c1 since I was a little kid. My second hot wheel ever (in gold). Going to its forever home."
Parsons spent $79,000 on a vehicle in October 2023 just ahead of the previous layoffs, followed by three more purchases over the remainder of the year - including a Porsche costing over $200k. In total, Parsons appears to have spent $2,414,550 on vehicles.
Sony purchased Bungie in 2022 for $3.6bn. While it's unclear how much Parsons has earned since the buyout, it would appear Bungie's senior leadership has not taken salary cuts while over the past nine months almost a quarter of the workforce has been laid off.
In a report from IGN last December following layoffs at Bungie, employees asked a department head during a post-layoffs Q&A if leadership would be taking salary cuts, to which the response was Bungie was "not that type of company".
Parsons described yesterday's layoffs as "some of the most difficult changes we've ever had to make as a studio" in a blog post, citing the rising costs of development, industry shifts, and "enduring economic conditions" as key reasons for the cutbacks.
The response to the layoffs online has been mostly anger, with Destiny 2's global community lead Dylan Gafner in particular calling the layoffs "inexcusable".
Parsons' Bring a Trailer account was spotted and shared online following the news, with many calling for the CEO to step down.
Former Destiny 2 community manager Liana Ruppert shared a story on social media of struggling to find money for groceries while working at Bungie, while Parsons "bragged about a few new expensive cars he bought and that we should come to his house and see them."
Ruppert continued: "And I have not stopped digging since October. There's so much more to this that won't come out for a few more years to protect people, but I just want to say this: This falls squarely on leadership."
Another former employee called out Parsons as a "coward" for setting his social media to private, adding: "You lied to my face. Straight to it. You also invited me to come see your new cars two days before you laid me off." Parsons has since made his account public once more.
Destiny 2 YouTuber MyNameIsByf also called out leadership. "They've been reckless with the studio, its employees, and its franchises," he posted. "The problem is clear. Bad leadership. It needs to change."
Destiny 2's most recent expansion, The Final Shape, has received praise from critics and players. "Bungie sticks the landing as it finally brings together the threads of its epic first saga," reads our Eurogamer The Final Shape review. It seems even this success was not enough to prevent layoffs.